Kim Kardashian's 'vampire facial,' Heart Evangelista's 'sleep chic': Natural beauty solutions on the rise

MANILA, Philippines — As the holidays draw nearer, more and more typhoons such as “Paeng” and “Queenie” enter the country one after the other. But even disasters like these cannot dampen Filipinos’ #BeautyGoals.

According to latest data by analysis companies WGSN and Packworks, Filipinos prioritize hygiene and beauty in times of disasters, such as typhoons, ash falls, and earthquakes.
Based on the around 200,000 geo-tagged sari-sari stores in the Philippines, Packworks’ Sari IQ Data dashboard generated that during the onslaught of the Typhoon Odette in December 2021 (Leyte), Taal volcanic eruption in March 2022 (Batangas/Cavite), and Abra earthquake (Abra) in June 2022, 18% of the average total sales volume of sari-sari stores were haircare products, followed by laundry detergents (16%); and others including oral care and body care.

“Filipinos love their beauty products. While cautious spending is anticipated among consumers due to the lingering impact of the pandemic alongside the worldwide inflation, interest in beauty is seen to remain high,” shared Christine Chua, Beauty Analyst, WGSN. 

“Value-for-money would primarily drive purchasing decisions of Filipino consumers, trailed by ‘lazy’ beauty solutions that save on effort, time, and carbon footprint.”

Championing Filipino virgin coconut oil

The higher the demand for grooming products, however, may also trigger a surge in chemical use and exposure, said Filipina “clean beauty” advocate Maria Pia Paz Sy.

“There are a lot of commercial products that we grew up using that are actually really not clean,” Sy warned. “You realize that there are ingredients there that are actually harmful to our health.”

As a full-time housewife and mother of three for 25 years, Sy’s simple everyday indulgence is to have a “me time” during baths. As such, she has been fond of soaps and has been into soap making since 2018.

“I just like to indulge in my baths,” she said, unaware of the harmful chemicals she was unleashing down her drain and into the earth at every bath time. 

But when pandemic struck, Sy had a wakeup call. 

“I actually chanced upon an article on clean beauty. I got fascinated because I’m also a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow who owns Goop. And she’s an advocate also of clean beauty… It had a profound impact on me hearing about people getting extremely ill, dying. So I was very affected. It just led me to really dig deeper into my conscience and ask myself how I can contribute to make this place a better and a healthier place to live in especially for our children. So when I read about the clean beauty philosophy, I decided to create my own brand of clean beauty products.”

After searching for someone who can formulate “clean” products, Sy found her current business partner Ana Kamila Niguidula. Together, Sy and Niguidula founded For Keeps, a new brand of liquid and bar soaps recently launched in Rustan’s Makati.

“It’s a strong emotional attachment to someone or something. It means forever. We want our skincare brand of products to evoke that same kind of feeling. Similar to when a person finds a partner in life, that would be that person’s for keeps, forever, for life,” Sy explained the story behind their brand name.

“We want to come up with a reliable partner during these tough times – something that will take care of you, will not cause you any harm,” Niguidula shared their brand’s commitment to provide products not only dermatologically approved to be safe for all skin conditions and for all ages, but also for the environment. 

“Fillers, thickeners superficially make a product conform to what society expects that makes a good product,” claimed Niguidula, who also owns an artisanal brand advocating clean beauty for 22 years now, and as such, has been well-versed in harmful and clean ingredients. In For Keeps, these ingredients include virgin coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, and pure and natural essential oils – sourced locally and internationally, and all ethically and sustainably produced.

Apart from preventing fungal infections and providing skin moisture, virgin coconut oil is being scientifically studied as a potential COVID-19 treatment.

Their next challenge, Niguidula said, is filling the need for shampoos, which are “hard to render as clean beauty because people are already used to chemical products.” 

“Clean beauty is so new to this country that people didn’t know the harm chemicals do to people and the environment,” Sy said.

“There’s so much to learn about it, but in simplest terms, clean beauty means non-toxic ingredients – ingredients that are not harmful to human health and also, products with ingredients that will not harm the environment. So the less the negative impact to our planet is what clean beauty is. So two things: our health and environment.”

Sy said they are trying to close the loop by promoting sustainability even in their packaging.

“Using single-use plastics is also bad because it will destroy our oceans, our planet. So our brand, actually, we try to be sustainable as much as we can. We try to perfect that side of things,” she said, noting that their brand’s secondary packaging is reusable, while their liquid bottles are made to be sturdy enough for multiple refilling and reuse. 

“At the end of the day, if you really want to get rid of all your For Keeps packaging, we partnered with My Basurero and Trashpanda. Both of them are companies that collect trash… They are going to bring all these trash to these recycling factories to recycle the plastics,” she enthused.

“We also encourage other brands to make the shift. This is not all about us. We really like to make noise and to introduce to the movement to as many people as possible.”

Lavender variant, refilling station launched for sustainability

Personal care company Watsons Philippines recently launched the new lavender variants as the latest additions to its Naturals line, which already includes lotions, shampoo, conditioners, hair tonic and other haircare products made of natural ingredients such as olive, coffee and Argan oil.

Alongside this, the company also unraveled its new refilling station in its SM Megamall branch as part of the company’s sustainability efforts.

“Customers can now bring their clean and empty Naturals by Watsons bottle and simply refill it with their favorite variants,” Maria Victoria Herrera-Encarnacion, Watsons Philippines’ Public Relations and Sustainability Director, explained how the refilling station works. 

According to her, the station’s dispensers directly pumps the products straight to the bottle and they did away with manual refilling to avoid contamination or compromised product quality.

Gone are the days when “sustainability” used to mean “more expensive” as the refills are 30 to 40% cheaper than the new products, said Encarnacion.

“Today, it’s no longer enough to look and feel good, but we also have to do good for the planet,” she said of the refilling station as part of their company’s efforts to align with the Climate Change Commission in eliminating single-use plastic bottles.

“Many years ago, my involvement in sustainability was limited to making sure that I print (on a paper) back and forth and to making sure that I turn off the lights to keep down our electric bill. That was all. It was only in July last year when I took a course in the Cambridge Sustainability Leadership that I had the whole understanding,” she shared.

“Many Filipinos are just starting to learn… Don’t worry, we are all in this together. We are all learning.”

Apart from preventing single-use plastic, she encouraged everyone to make sustainable choices via products with ingredients that are kinder to the planet, and carrying your own eco bag when shopping.

“Closer to our heart is sustainable beauty… It refers to beauty products using natural ingredients, produced from renewable raw materials,” she explained, citing as example palm oil, a common beauty product ingredient that should be sourced from sustainable sources so it never runs out.

“So that’s the key to sustainability – renewability. So you have to check if products use raw materials coming from responsibly-operated plantations,” she stressed.

“With these initiatives, customers will not only be able to save money, but also save the planet.”

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